


Buried by Garbage

by Zhelana



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 12:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11148408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zhelana/pseuds/Zhelana
Summary: The Enterprise lands on a planet that is covered in garbage.





	Buried by Garbage

“There seems to be something very strange about this planet, Captain,” Spock said, looking at his readings, “it appears to be covered in items stemming from a large number of other planet systems. This debris is approximately one kilometer deep, and covers the entire planet.”   
“One kilometer deep?” Kirk replied. “That doesn’t sound like our accident. But how did it get there? On screen.” An image of the planet covered in debris filled the wall in front of them. “We’ll have to go investigate.”   
“We may not be able to walk on top of the piles, Captain,” Spock mentioned.   
“A good point, Mister Spock. We’ll fly a shuttle over the planet, collect a few samples, and bring them back here to analyze.” He called to Doctor McCoy, “Doctor, we’re going on an away mission in a shuttle. Since we’re not using transporters, we thought you might like to come along. Please meet myself and Mr Spock in 15 minutes.”   
“Yes, captain,” came the invisible reply. 

15 minutes later the three men met at a shuttle. They flew out of orbit and down to the planet, where they grabbed several samples from the top of the planet, but also took some from the depths of the mounds of trash. Some of the rubble was identifiable as old ships and large items like cars. But most of it was scraps of plastics and organic compounds that had replaced plastics on most worlds. As they flew they tried to identify different and interesting patterns to take samples, and they eventually wound up with ten samples of trash, mostly from some of the piles but also from between the piles where it was less deep but still omnipresent. 

It was an hour later, and the Enterprise crew had returned to their ship. McCoy was down in the science lab looking at the samples of garbage he had picked up. It seemed to come from a variety of different planets and had been there for a large span of different times, as though people had been dumping trash here for generations, from somewhere else. Then he found something interesting. It was something that shouldn’t be possible on a planet without lifeforms. Some of the garbage from deeper levels were fermenting. Fermentation required eukaryotic life in the form of yeast.   
“Captain?” he called over the intercom.   
“Yes Dr McCoy?” came the response almost immediately.   
“I’ve found something very interesting. Did we run a scan for life forms on this planet?”   
Kirk turned to ask Spock this question.   
“No, captain, we did not consider the possibility that a planet so completely covered in garbage would support life.”   
“What have you found, Mr McCoy?”   
“Fermentation. Something’s making alcohol out of the garbage, Jim,” he answered.   
“Interesting. We should have thought of it,” Kirk answered, “it makes sense that something would evolve to help the planet deal with the mountains of trash.”   
“Indeed, captain,” Spock interjected, “there are oceans and ample food supplies. Conditions are perfect for creating primitive lifeforms here.”   
“Any idea where the garbage came from, Mr McCoy?” Kirk asked.  
“None, sir, it seems to have been arriving for a long time, and from a large number of civilizations with at least three unique alphabets that I’ve been able to identify.”   
“Let me send Uhura down to you. Perhaps she’ll recognize one of the alphabets,” Kirk motioned for Lt Uhura to go down to McCoy’s lab. 

Uhura looked at the samples McCoy had prepared. He had six samples with writing on them. “Nothing looks familiar,” she said, shaking her head. “If you find any more of this one, let me know. There’s not enough of a sample for me to be sure, but I think it might belong to the Natu. It’s not a perfect match. For example this symbol doesn’t mean anything, but it does look similar.” 

Back on the bridge, Chekov was interrupting Kirk’s train of thought, “Captain, we’re being hailed,” he announced.   
“On screen”   
A face appeared. “This is Captain Geraldino of the Star Ship Obama. You are under arrest for illegal dumping on this planet.”   
“This is Captain Kirk of the Star Ship Enterprise,” he said, “We have been investigating this planet to try to learn why it is covered in trash, but we have not dumped anything ourselves. We have replicators that make use of our garbage.”   
“I will need to ascertain this for myself,” Geraldino demanded.   
“Certainly, we can beam you aboard, or you can come in a shuttle,” Kirk offered.   
“I’ll beam myself. Please send the coordinates of your transporter room,” he replied. Five minutes later, a dark skinned man with cropped black hair appeared in front of Scotty and Kirk. “Welcome aboard,” Kirk told him.   
“Thank you, Captain,” the other Captain smiled at him.   
“Now, about these replicators?”   
Kirk showed him the trash recycling and replicators. He agreed that it was unlikely the Enterprise had been dumping on the planet. “Do you have any idea who it was?” he asked Kirk.   
“None. We found several different writing systems, but none that we recognized.” 

Kirk and Geraldino continued walking until they got to McCoy’s lab. “There is, however, another interesting thing we did find.”   
“What’s that?”   
“Microbial life feeding on the trash. It appears this planet has evolved a way to deal with this dumping problem on its own.”   
“Life? Impossible. There’s no free oxygen in the environment.”   
“It seems to be breathing the methane, the lower levels of these piles are fermenting.”   
“Let me see.” Geraldino demanded.  
“Certainly” He opened the door. “Bones?” he asked.   
“Captain?”   
“This is Captain Geraldino. Can you show him our proof that there is life on that planet?”   
“Certainly. It’s right over here,” he gestured to a microscope on the table. Geraldino looked. “Interesting, it appears my scanners have missed this life form,” he said “What do we do with this?”   
“Well it seems to me we need them to leave the planet to its own devices. We can allow the dumping as that is the only thing feeding this species, and without it it will starve to death.”   
“I’ll have to talk to my higher ups, but that seems reasonable.”   
“We’ll each write a report for you.” Kirk offered, gesturing to himself and McCoy.   
“Thank you, Captain.”


End file.
